


Come To Me in the Dark and Let me Heal your Wounds

by zaan



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Rape Recovery, not explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:54:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24472354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zaan/pseuds/zaan
Summary: Garak barely makes it back from an away mission
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak, Julian Bashir/Ezri Dax
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	Come To Me in the Dark and Let me Heal your Wounds

**Author's Note:**

> Something a little darker, a little grittier, but still full of hope I think.

_Garak_

He needs to get back. Kira and the others won't – can't - wait forever, but he can't be seen, he can't be followed, and he's too hurt to move quickly or well. He needs to be careful. 

He waits until the first whispers of dark reach his eyes. He moves uneasily, his cracked ribs rubbing blood into his lungs. He tries not to cough, even though he feels the blood choking his throat, conscious of the way the noise echoes, even when muffled against the crook of his arm. 

It could be worse. He'd been taken, used as the street seller he claimed to be, abused for the amusement of the soldiers, but they didn't detain him, they didn't kill him, and they didn't find the transmitter he'd planted next to the tower.

Success is the only thing that matters. He's been hurt worse before, many times, even in that way. It doesn't matter. He just needs to get back. He concentrates on moving, on keeping to the shadows, on the faint possibility that they are still there, waiting.

_Julian_

They've returned. He breathes a sigh of relief, as he does every time. Every time they're gone longer, every time the return is less certain, and this time Elim almost didn't make it. He waits impatiently as he's brought in, as Kira explains, in broad strokes, what happened. 

He hovers over the pale face, the eyes pinched shut in pain, brushing his knuckles against the cool pulse of his temple. "Hey," he says softly. Elim opens his eyes and relief floods into them. Julian bends down, brushes their foreheads together.

They don't do this often, touch each other. Julian remembers the first time he held his hand, tentatively, in the infirmary. He remembers the first time he held his body, desperately, in the Internment camp. He remembers the first time he stroked his hair, the one time he fell asleep in his arms. Loving Elim is like loving a wild animal. He's like a bird fluttering in his hands, his heartbeat wild, desperate to escape. 

He tends his wounds, stops the bleeding, stops the pain, or what of it he can. His hands shake as he cleans up the blood and bruises on his legs, his thighs, in-between. Elim caresses his forearm. He's not the one who's supposed to need reassuring.

When he's finished, Elim gets up quietly and goes to leave. He doesn't know if Elim will come that night, and he needs to know, needs to hold him. "If you can't sleep ... " he says softly. Elim hesitates. "Please," Julian implores. Elim hesitates and then finally, resignedly, nods. 

_Ezri_

Julian is with Garak. She knows this, though he hasn't told her. She can tell by the way he looks, the few details he gives when he cancels their plan. She wonders if he knows that she knows. It doesn't matter. She is all right with this, with whatever they have. 

**Author's Note:**

> There could be more to this; there is at least quite a lot more in my head and it involves Julian/Elim/Ezri


End file.
